Can Certainties Be Acquired at Will? Implications for Children's Assimilation of a World‐picture

After describing Wittgenstein's notion of ‘certainty’, in this article I provide four arguments to demonstrate that no certainty can be acquired at will. Specifically, I argue that, in order to assimilate a certainty, it is irrelevant whether the individual concerned (1) has found a ground that seemingly justifies that certainty; (2) has a given mental state; (3) is willing to accept the certainty on the proposal of a persuader; or (4) tries to act according to the certainty involved. Lastly, I analyse how each of these arguments is reflected in the way children acquire certainties.     

Are Test and Academic Disengagement Related? Implications for Measurement and Practice

A vast literature investigates academic disengagement among students, including its ultimate manifestation, dropping out of school. Research also shows that test disengagement can be a problem for many inferences educators and policymakers wish to draw from test scores. However, few studies consider whether academic and test disengagement are related. In this study, we examine whether behaviors indicative of academic disengagement like chronic absenteeism and course failures are related to behaviors indicative of test disengagement like rapidly guessing on items. We also examine whether social-emotional factors like low academic self-efficacy and self-management, which research suggests are the root causes of academic disengagement, are also related to rapid guessing behavior. Our results provide evidence that academic and test disengagement are related, including through a common association with poor self-management. The implications of this connection for measurement and practice are discussed.     

Can a Classroom Be Too Communicative?

An indirect communicative approach, one in which learning takes place indirectly and the focus is on communication, has been regarded for years as an effective way of getting students to develop fluency in English. Indeed, a communicative approach has become the mission of many ESL programs, and many material writers, teacher trainers, and     

Embedded Field Test Item Statistics: Can They Be Trusted for Estimating Student Proficiency?

Assessment items are commonly field tested prior to operational use to observe statistical item properties such as difficulty. Item parameter estimates from field testing may be used to assign scores via pre-equating or computer adaptive designs. This study examined differences between item difficulty estimates based on field test and operational data and the relationship of such differences to item position changes and student proficiency estimates. Item position effects were observed for 20 assessments, with items in later positions tending to be more difficult. Moreover, field test estimates of item difficulty were biased slightly upward, which may indicate examinee knowledge of which items were being field tested. Nevertheless, errors in field test item difficulty estimates had negligible impacts on student proficiency estimates for most assessments. Caution is still warranted when using field test statistics for scoring, and testing programs should conduct investigations to determine whether the effects on scoring are inconsequential.     

Can This Marriage Be Saved? The Future of ‘Neuro‐Education’

Neuro‐education, a new frontier for educational researchers, has its passionate advocates and equally passionate detractors. Some philosophers, including Noel Purdy and Hugh Morrison, Andrew Davis, and Ralph Schumacher, have argued that the entire enterprise is misguided. I evaluate and challenge their arguments. This permits me to articulate my own position: Neuroscience may make impressive contributions to education but, perhaps paradoxically, not by guiding the work of teachers.     

Appropriate Test Preparation: Can We Reach a Consensus?

Although standardized tests have been in use for years, there is a lack of consensus about what constitutes appropriate student preparation for testing. Popham (1991) demonstrated that teachers and administrators view preparation in different ways and noted that there is considerable diversity of opinion about which practices are appropriate and inappropriate. Other researchers have attempted to create standards or guidelines for determining appropriate testing practice, but these do not appear to capture the diversity of teacher-initiated preparation. Do teachers and testing specialists see preparation in the same way? What practices fall into the grey area of being not appropriate but not necessarily unethical? This study examines eight categories (40 practices) of preparation or teacher intervention to maximize student test performance. Teachers (N = 42) and testing specialists (N = 10) were asked to examine practices and determine how appropriate or inappropriate the practices were for a specified test. Results show that teachers consistently rate practices to be more appropriate than do testing specialists. Significant differences between teachers and specialists were found for six of the eight categories of preparation. Practices such as motivational activities, pretest interventions, same format preparation, and previous form preparation were perceived to be less evident regarding the appropriateness of their use by teachers in the classroom. This article concludes with a call for test developers and school district representatives to collaborate to determine the appropriateness of testing practice for local needs and a recognition that concrete and widely disseminated guidelines for testing practices are needed for a variety of tests and instructional decisions.     

PISA Country Rankings Valid? Results for Canada and Finland

This article examines whether the way that PISA models item outcomes in mathematics affects the validity of its country rankings. As an alternative to PISA methodology a two-parameter model is applied to PISA mathematics item data from Canada and Finland for the year 2012. In the estimation procedure item difficulty and dispersion parameters are allowed to differ across the two countries and samples are restricted to respondents who actually answered items in a mathematics cluster. Different normalizations for identifying the distribution parameters are also considered. The choice of normalization is shown to be crucial in guaranteeing certain invariance properties required by item response models. The ability scores obtained from the methods employed here are significantly higher for Finland, in sharp contrast to PISA results, which gave both countries very similar ranks in mathematics.     

How Can Brain Research Inform Academic Learning and Instruction?

This paper explores the potential of neuroscience for improving educational practice by describing the perspective of educational psychology as a linking science; providing historical context showing educational psychology’s 100-year search for an educationally relevant neuroscience; offering a conceptual framework for the connections among neuroscience, cognitive science, educational psychology, and educational practice; and laying out a research agenda for the emerging field of educational neuroscience.     

Does HRD Effectiveness Vary for Organization‐ and HRD‐Related Factors?

Based on contingency theory, this paper examines whether certain contextual conditions influence the effectiveness of HRD [human resource development] programs and activities. Stakeholders of two types of HRD programs who were also from companies in two economic sectors were asked to complete a questionnaire. No differences in perceived effectiveness was observed for the factors of size and structure of the company, economic sector, structure of the HRD function, and transfer conditions. Significant differences were found for the problem that serves as starting point for HRD—company HRD climate, position of the HRD department, and the form the HRD program takes.     

Question,Explanation, Follow‐Up: A Mechanism for Learning From Others?

This study explored differences in caregiver–child interactions following children's information‐seeking questions. Naturalistic speech from thirty‐seven 4‐year‐olds and their caregivers was used to explore children's information‐seeking questions, the caregiver's response, and children's subsequent follow‐up. Half of the families were low‐socioeconomic status (SES) and the other half were mid‐SES. Although children across socioeconomic groups asked a similar proportion of questions, mid‐SES caregivers offered significantly more explanatory responses to causal questions as well as more noncircular explanations than low‐SES caregivers. No differences were found in children's follow‐up to responses given to fact‐based questions; however, after hearing unsatisfactory responses to causal questions, mid‐SES children were significantly more likely to provide their own explanation. Such variability in caregiver–child interaction may have implications for subsequent learning.     

Can Genetics and Genomics Nursing Competencies Be Successfully Taught in a Prenursing Microbiology Course?

In recognition of the entry into the era of personalized medicine, a new set of genetics and genomics competencies for nurses was introduced in 2006. Since then, there have been a number of reports about the critical importance of these competencies for nursing practices and about the challenges of addressing these competencies in the preservice (basic science) nursing curriculum. At least one suggestion has been made to infuse genetics and genomics throughout the basic science curriculum for prenursing students. Based on this call and a review of the competencies, this study sought to assess the impact of incorporation of genetics and genomics content into a prenursing microbiology course. Broadly, two areas that address the competencies were incorporated into the course: 1) the biological basis and implications of genetic diversity and 2) the technological aspects of assessing genetic diversity in bacteria and viruses. These areas address how genetics and genomics contribute to healthcare, including diagnostics and selection of treatment. Analysis of learning gains suggests that genetics and genomics content can be learned as effectively as microbiology content in this setting. Future studies are needed to explore the most effective ways to introduce genetics and genomics technology into the prenursing curriculum.     

Liberal Education and the Teleological Question; or Why Should a Dentist Read Chaucer?

This essay consists of an examination of the work of three thinkers who conceive of liberal education primarily in teleological terms, and, implicitly if not explicitly, attempt to offer some answer to the question: what does it mean to be fully human? John Henry Newman, T. S. Eliot, and Josef Pieper developed their understanding of liberal education from their own intellectual and religious experience, which was informed by a specifically Christian conception of the place of education in a fully developed human life. I suggest that the strength of their understanding of liberal education derives from its connection to the various small cohesive religious communities to which they were connected. Nonetheless, this insularity was also the primary weakness because each writer ended universalising what was in fact a particular and unique cultural and religious experience instead of providing convincing proof of a single human nature with a single telos. I will contrast this teleological conception of liberal education with that of Michael Oakeshott and his student Kenneth Minogue, both of whom wrote about education in a post‐religious era in which the earlier consensus had completely broken down. They both celebrated the variety of practices which human beings have invented for themselves over the past several centuries (and past several millennia), and did not appear to suffer from the lack of any unifying single human telos. I will suggest that their understanding of practice insulated them from the need for a single unifying telos.     

An Analysis of Prospects for Changing Faculty Roles and Rewards: Can Scholarship Be Reconsidered?

Ernest Boyer's book, Scholarship Reconsidered (1990) is examined through use of Sarason's (1982) construct of regularities, and Lewin's (1976) force field analysis model for understanding behavior. It is concluded that prospects for implementing Boyer's proposals for renewal of the American university through restructuring faculty roles and rewards will depend less on simply urging the case for reform, and more on devising strategies that respond to forces shaping the present regularities of academic life. In particular, it is asserted that successful change in the definition of scholarship will be possible only through reduction of the resistance produced by legitimate concerns about altering the present system.     

Can a Man and Woman Be Close Friends without Being in Love with Each Other?

从内容上看,这个话题与“Do you see anydifference in the kind of friendship you can havewith a man and with a womall?”有相近之处,却更进了一层,所问也更加直接,像是一个自然进行中的对话。我们向某人提问,一般都是由表及里,层层推进的。若两人一见面,一方的第一个     

Can Service Bureaus Be a Part of the College Admissions Strategy?

Colleges and universities nationwide are facing declining enrollment resulting in declining revenue. Fewer 18-24 year olds, rising college costs and decreasing financial aid are causing admissions officers to become more agressive in their recruitment process. Well-targeted direct marketing campaigns personally designed to meet individual students' needs will allow college admissions personnel to effectively communciate with prospective students and parents. Utilizing the services of a service bureau provides colleges and universities a means to gain expertise in direct marketing areas and keep the costs under control at the same time.     

Can Assessment Mirror Instruction? A Look at Peer Response and Revision in a Large-Scale Writing Test

Both recent research and practitioners' classroom experience repeatedly affirm that the opportunity to obtain peer response and revise rough drafts helps writers to improve their texts. With the god of aligning assessment with exemplary instructional practices, writing on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests is assessed through a multiday, process-oriented framework. Results of a study analyzing students' peer response feedback and subsequent revisions through comparison of rough and final draft stage writing at Grades 3, 5, and 8 suggest that within this testing context, students' peer response is unengaged, minimal, and formulaic; revisions are similarly sparse and superficial, with scores on final drafts remaining the same or decreasing with greater frequency than they increase. This investigation demonstrates that elements of classroom-based "writing process" instruction cannot simply be inserted into otherwise unchanged assessment formats. It suggests instead a number of principles to guide a more sophisticated reconceptualization of performance-based writing assessments, the kinds of instruction they support, and the interdisciplinary research methods that inquiry into their implementation demands,     

Do Learning Communities Effect Academic Outcomes? Evidence From an Experiment in a Community College

Abstract

Many postsecondary institutions utilize learning communities to increase social engagement and attachment to the college community. In recent years, these communities have proliferated as part of a trend fueled by low retention and persistence rates, increasing reluctance of 4-year institutions to provide remedial education, and pressure on colleges to be accountable for their outcomes. This article reports the findings of a randomized experiment of a learning communities program that operated in an urban community college. The 1-semester learning community, which focused largely on remedial English, had modest effects on full-time enrollment, the number of courses attempted and passed, remedial English pass rates, and credits earned during the semester in which it operated. Impacts diminished in postprogram semesters.     

Can student teachers acquire core skills for teaching from part‐time employment?

Part‐time employment among university students has become commonplace internationally. Research has largely focused on the impact of part‐time employment on academic performance. This research takes an original approach in that it poses the question whether students can acquire core skills relevant to teaching from their part‐time employment. The research was conducted in a university college of education. A case study approach was adopted using an opportunistic sample of 285 students drawn from two BEd programmes. The project is based on an interpretive paradigm, focusing on students’ perceptions of their part‐time employment. The research methodology included a questionnaire containing both closed and open questions, a follow‐up focus group discussion and two case histories. The results showed that the majority of students believed that they had acquired core skills from their part‐time employment. The findings of this research raise important issues about how university courses can effectively build on such learning experiences.     

How do question writers compose external examination questions? Question writing as a socio‐cognitive process

The focus of this research is on the practice of education examination question writing. Educational examinations are tests that are taken by candidates in schools or colleges but that are externally developed, administered and marked by an assessment organisation. Whilst the practice of writing external examination questions is ubiquitous, previous research in this area is limited and has tended to adopt a cognitivist approach. This current project sought to extend this area of enquiry by looking at educational examination question writing as a socio‐cognitive process. The project involved a group of seven examination question writers (known as ‘setters’) from a range of subject areas. To capture evidence of question writing practices, each setter was observed remotely using video technology whilst they carried out a question writing task. The video material was then used to facilitate a stimulated recall session where individual setters could explain the processes that motivated their observed behaviours. Analyses suggested that the setters shared a common model of the writing process, which comprised three basic but interconnected phases: thinking about writing; writing and reflective thinking; and reviewing. In addition, question writing practice was influenced by the social system of examining through the way in which the setters considered a variety of perspectives during the writing task. This insight gives an indication of how setter practice develops; implicating a sociocultural perspective which suggests that the broader social context of examination question writing is an inevitable influence on setter practice.